Hi everyone,
My name is Meg (Margaret Irwin) and I’m excited to be in courses 7 and 8 of my MET journey. I am a Foods teacher in Vernon, BC on the traditional, unceded territory of the Syilx Nation. I have been a teacher for 16 years, teaching mostly Home Ec and PE at the high school level.
I live in nearby Lumby with my husband and two boys (ages 8 and 10). When not working or studying, we can be found (depending on the season) hunting, fishing, playing hockey and enjoying the outdoors.
I’m excited to get into this course, as being a teacher I want to try and harness my students’ love of their cell phones and learn how to better utilize them for learning in the classroom. My teaching is generally rooted in a constructivist, design-thinking framework, where I use recipes simply as a base, encouraging students to find inspiration at home or online to make changes and modifications to suit their taste.
HI Meg, Thanks for sharing! And greetings from down highway 97. Look forward to learning with you; and hearing about your foods courses (my kids who just started grade 9 are super excited about continuing with foods as electives for both of them).
Hi Meg,
It is nice to see a familiar face here again! Hope you had a restful and rejuvenating winter break after ETEC 512.
It is great to read that your students are researching, finding their inspiration online, and experimenting their interests in the classroom, instead of everyone following the same recipe. Also, I love that students have to decide a recipe by the ingredients that they have on hand– it sounds like one of those cooking competition shows and something we all do every day when deciding a dinner menu!
Looking forward exploring this course with you!
Esther
Hi Meg! I love your idea of having a base recipe and having your students add on their own personal touches. What was the best (or worst) thing that they have created? I remember I helped out in a foods explorations classroom in the past and all the kids had so many creative ideas.
Hi Wynn!
The biggest issues the kids have is experimenting too much with spices. I try and tell them that garlic powder isn’t a nice as fresh garlic, but they often add way too much! And they also like to make things really big – giant cookies, thick pasta, etc. They learn the hard way that making things big often means that they don’t cook properly! Today we are going to use up a bunch of tortillas that I had in the freezer – they were already talking about making things like quesadillas, tacos, tortilla soup – and I will show them a quick empanada to try if they’d like. It will be interesting to see what they come up with. My goal is just to get them used to using what they have on hand, instead of needing to run to the store for specific ingredients.
Great to meet you Meg!! You are nearing the finish line of your MET Journey. Congrats! I am curious to know what your favourite class was, and/or, which one offered the most value for you as a teacher.
Hi Emma!!
I think the course I’ve liked the most so far is either 521 or 540. I just loved the pace and discussion in 521 and it brought me out of my comfort zone when discussing Indigenous issues in education. And 540 was awesome because it followed the development of technology and communication chronologically and introduced me to a bunch of new ideas for sharing information (I’ve discovered a bit of love for Twine!). But so far 512 was the best value as a teacher because I was re-introduced to learning theories 16 years after taking my Education degree! Feel free to message me if you have any questions!
Meg.
Hi Meg. Sounds like you have started to figure out the puzzle of incorporating cell phones into the classroom. I struggle with this daily and don’t think there is any one-size-fits-all answer, but I know that they’re here to stay, so finding strategies to make them useful is important to me. My sister is a Foods teacher (in the same school as me) and it’s been interesting since the pandemic started to watch her get more and more comfortable with technology due to the HomeEc teachers’ online sharing platforms she has joined. Lots of innovative stuff there! Looking forward to working with you.
Lori
Hi Lyndsay!
I have been encouraging students to use their phones in my classes for a couple of years now. As a foods teacher I was frustrated with the piles of paper recipes and information that float around the classroom. Most people access recipes on their phones, so now I get my students to do the same! I post a recipe each class on our Google Classroom, along with one or two links to supporting information with the hopes it will inspire students to modify the recipes to suit their taste! The biggest struggle is knowing when they are on their phone for class purposes or just on SanpChat or Tic Toc … I try to make sure that when someone is talking, all phones are done – but its a constant struggle!
Not a school teacher myself, I’m so interested to see how you’ll embrace cell phone use in classroom learning. The connectedness and immediacy is really interesting. And maybe makes it difficult to create boundaries? Looking forward to following your work, Meg!